


Soothe | Prestidigitate

by HanaHimus



Category: Persona | Revelations Persona
Genre: Crushes, F/M, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 20:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16394378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanaHimus/pseuds/HanaHimus
Summary: Reiji starts to like Eriko. It doesn't exactly go well for him.





	Soothe | Prestidigitate

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be... Cute Eriko/Reiji fluff cause I thought why not try and write my fave m/f Reiji ship? It became a mess of unrequited feelings instead, tho..
> 
> Speaking of which, minor ships in this fic that don't get a tag bc they're not the focus:
> 
> Eriko -> Naoya  
> Naoya -> Reiji

“There… that’s a dear…” Eriko’s voice came out a coo as she tried to negotiate with the demon. “Goodnight, my sweet child.”

The demon let out an angry shriek as Naoya moved in to try and save the negotiation, the thing clearly not a fan of what was said… But Reiji could feel his heart racing. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen her soothe a demon and it wasn’t the first time he’d started feeling weird hearing it.

She turned to look at him, giving him an awkward smile when she noticed his stare, and his face reddened and his heartbeat quickened again. What the hell was wrong with him?

He looked away, doing his best to ignore Eriko’s confused head-tilt. Looking at her just made the heart thing worst. Maybe he was getting sick… He didn’t get why Eriko made it worse, if that was the case, though.

He really didn’t get it.

 

\--

 

The doctor had told Reiji he was totally fine and he was starting to think that there was something secretly weird about the doctors in this universe, too. There had to be something up with him, right? He couldn’t think of another explanation.

“Reiji…” Eriko approached him and he felt his mouth go dry. “You look angrier than usual, is everything alright?”

“Fine… Things are just fine.” His voice was shakier than usual, he hated it. “Doctor’s just a hack…”

“Is that so?” Eriko tilted her head to the side. “He seems like he’s just fine to me.”

“Y-yeah, well… Uh…” He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I’m sick, but he says it’s nothing!”

“Is that so…?” Eriko put a hand on her cheek. “Well, what are your symptoms?” 

“My heart keeps racing, and my face gets red, and… Uh… Talking to a specific person is really hard for me to do.” He looked at his feet with a frown. “I dunno, it all seems connected, at least.”

“I think you might have a crush…” Eriko looked longingly towards Naoya. “...It sounds like one at least.”

A crush. Reiji had a crush on Eriko…? He wasn’t sure how to feel about that possibility. He was focused on other things more than romance, so this even being a possibility was kind of hard for him to wrap his head around…

“...That can’t be it, but thanks, Kirishima.”

Eriko frowned. “That seems the most likely, but… Alright. I hope you feel better soon, then.”

 

\--

 

“With a snap of my fingers… presto!” He held out the flowers to the demon. “Flowers appear. Beautiful, aren’t they?”

The demon eagerly squealed as they took the flowers and Reiji looked to the side as he requested their spell card. Usually that went well, but this time he almost crushed the card in his hand when he realized Eriko was looking at him.

Her eyes were bright, a hand in front of her mouth to mask a giant smile. She was almost more eager than the demon to see the magic trick. Naoya seemed to be nearly smitten with the trick as well, but wow, Reiji was kinda focused on Eriko.

She was really, really cute. Adorable, even. At least, Reiji felt that was the case… Oh, shit. He thought Eriko was cute? That was bad, horrible even.

He definitely had a crush on Eriko and he didn’t know how to deal with this. How did someone deal with a crush like this? He didn’t know, but he was scared just thinking about it…

Maybe it was time to try and avoid the girl.

 

\--

 

“Reiji! Have you been avoiding me?” She approached him, tilting her head to the side with a frown. “Did I do something to upset you.”

Reiji’s face heated up in less than a minute. He was having even more trouble holding it together around her now that he knew he liked her. “Uh… No! You didn’t do anything.”

“Then why avoid me?” Eriko was clearly upset with him and, well, that wasn’t giving him a fun feeling. “It’s making me feel like you’re hiding something from me.”

“I’m not hiding anything from you!” He shook his head. “I just thought us avoiding each other would, uh… Be better.”

“Why do you…?” Eriko looked him over. Reiji could see the gears turning in her head as she began to piece everything together and her face went red. “Oh, oh! You do have a crush, don’t you?”

“...Probably.”

“And your crush it on…” She looked away with a sigh. “I’m flattered, but--”

Reiji put a hand up. “Don’t say anything. I know you like Toudou. That’s why I didn’t wanna be around you or say anything…” He grimaced, it kinda hurt to know she liked someone else. “Didn’t wanna get dragged into some high school darma bullshit.”

“You know that I like Naoya…?” Eriko’s face went redder. “I-I didn’t think it was obvious…!”

“It’s obvious to anyone other than Toudou. It’s almost pathetic that he doesn’t notice.” Reiji shook his head, pulling the back on topic. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. Just… Maybe pretend this didn’t happen?”

“I can do that…” Eriko gave him a tight, awkward smile. “It would be better for both of us if I do.”

“Yeah…”

 

\--

 

“You doing alright?” Naoya began walking in step with Reiji, a frown on his face. “You and Eriko have been avoiding each other…”

“Uh… Yeah, that’s because…” Reiji rubbed the back of his neck and huffed. “I dunno how to explain this, or even if I should…”

“Come on…” He put a hand on Reiji’s arm. “You can tell me!”

“...I like Kirishima. She figured it out and things got awkward, since she likes y… someone else. So we’re trying to forget about it.”

Naoya squeezed Reiji’s arm. “That’s rough, buddy… But if it counts for anything, I think you’d be a catch! Hell, I’d date you.”

“Thanks, Toudou, but flattery isn’t what I need right now.” He pulled his arm away and picked up the pace. “I just need to not think about the guy she likes.”

He walked off, and almost swore he heard Naoya say something like ‘I was serious, though’... But nah, wasn’t possible. He was probably just trying to make himself feel better by hearing things.


End file.
